DECEMBER 1, 1914 



947 



one knows, who has had experience, that 

 the farmer beekeeper, producing for his 

 own use, not knowing" what his honey is 

 costing him, will, when he is surprised with 

 an unusual crop, take whatever offer he can 

 get for his surplus, figuring it as clear gain 

 at any price, since he was not expecting to 

 sell any, but keeps bees for his own use only. 



A close observation, extending over a 

 number of years, both good and poor, has 

 convinced me that the ordinary farmer, the 

 man who farms as he should, for all there 

 is in it, can bay his honey cheaper than he 

 can raise it. It is true that there is nectar 

 going to waste ; but it is also true that there 

 is just as great a waste of soil fertility 

 going on in Iowa. "Would it not be more in 

 order to call for conservation of resources 

 in the i^roduction of the necessities of life 

 rather than the luxuries'? Look at the prices 

 the honey-producer must pay for his neces- 

 sities, and then at the price at which he sells 

 what is only a luxury with others, and what 

 they Avill do without if it goes over a certain 

 figure — butter, 30 to 35 cts. ; eggs, 25 to 35 

 cts.; meat, 15 to 22 cts.; flour, $3.00 to 

 $3.25 per 100 lbs., etc., while the beekeeper 

 is lucky to find sales for his honey at 8 to 

 I2V2 cents net. 



If honey were a necessity, if people had 

 to have honey, then the wholQ situation 

 would be changed. It would only be neces- 

 sary to hold the surplus of a big crop over 

 until a shorter crop came, when it would 

 sell; and a short crop would make a rise in 

 price commensurate with the shortage; but 

 as it now is, a short crop raises the price a 

 little because but few people like honey well 

 enough to take it at a slight rise, and there 

 it stops. Because the rest think it too high, 

 they prefer to have something else. 



I tried once to sell two men 40 lbs. of 

 extracted honey in 10-lb. pails. One of 

 them said he w^ould take two if the other 

 one would take the other two. No. 2 hesi- 

 tated quite a little, and remarked, " Two 

 pails of honey is a whole lot. If it were 

 syrup, I could handle it." Finally I made 

 the deal, and I heard afterward that No. 2 

 was talking of wanting some more honey. 

 It shows how the market can be extended, 

 you say. Yes, perhaps; but I was barely 

 making wages doing it ; and where would I 

 come in if all the nectar in Iowa were being 

 " saved," and two or three other fellows 

 going after this same man? Whoever gets 

 there first, or can make the lowest price, 

 will sell him the honey, and two or three of 

 us will have to hunt a new man. Can we 

 easily do that? No, it is not too easy, right 

 low, to find enough men who like honey to 

 ake a crop large enough to support a man 



and family. Therefore I am one who thinks 

 the fair way to those already in the business 

 is to let the demand for honey induce a 

 supply. 



Let those who have, by years of hard 

 work, built up a successful business, have a 

 fair chance to continue, and not use the 

 journals we have helped to support for 

 years to hold up rosy pictures to induce 

 moie to enter beekeeping than the demand 

 for lioney will justify. I do not consider 

 him a friend who tries to induce, by unfair 

 representations, another man to enter into 

 competition in a special market that I cre- 

 ated. 



To hold a season like 1913 up to the 

 public as a fair sample of what bees will 

 do in Iowa is about as unfair as it could 

 well b^. To be fair, one should say, " If 

 you live long enough, saj- 25 to 50 years, 

 you may see another as good; but it is sure 

 you will see manj' in Avhich you will not get 

 one-fourth as much." 



Before closing I wish to tell something 

 about one particular farmer who has a large 

 farm — Avho is a real farmer, and has all the 

 work he can attend to without any " side 

 issues." Seven years ago, when I moved 

 to my pre.sent location, this man, being one 

 of my new neighbors, I soon found he was 

 cjuite interested in bees, and I also found 

 why. He is very fond of honey. He was 

 always asking about " the bees," and fre- 

 quently came over to look around and talk 

 about tliem. Soon after a party near by, 

 moving* aAvay, sold my neighbor two colonies 

 and a couple of empty hives for $5.00. 

 Then it began to dawn on me that my 

 neighbor, being fond of honey, and having a 

 " beeman " so handy, was figuring that, with 

 what information he could pick up, and 

 this cheap start, he could " raise his own 

 honey." Well, I try not to be a hog, so I 

 did all I could to give him correct informa- 

 tion; and not only that, but I went over and 

 took off for him the only honey he harvested. 

 The seasons were running very ordinary 

 those years. I think my neighbor had bees 

 about three seasons; and for the ordinary 

 beeman with ordinary bees, to say that they 

 were buying no autos would be telling the 

 truth, if not the whole truth. Well, my 

 neiglibor had the " fever." He ran after 

 every stray swarm in the neighborhood ; and 

 about the second season he got up to six or 

 eight colonies. He was so anxious for bees 

 that, like most people in that condition, he 

 put them into whatever was handy. He 

 had three or four in the old hives he got 

 with his purcha.se, and the rest were in 

 boxes and kegs. The first season was poor, 

 or the bees swarmed wrong, or something, 



